Tag Archives for Thimble

I returned to the patch I detected two days ago and started from where I’d left off previously, crossing the field parallel to the fence as before. The weather was much better this time – at least there was no hail and at times it was warm enough to shed my fleece.

The return pass along the fence provided the first find of the day, a curious decorative lead item that looks like a stud and screw, the stud being an octofoil design with a round bead in the centre. As far as I can work out it’s a furniture fitting, probably of 18th century date.

After three hours detecting I had finished the semi-enclosed area and had reached the open field. With an hour still available to detect I decided to take a bit of a random wander around the field close to the line of the old road. That hour produced two thimbles, one missing its tip, and a small lead cylinder which might be a weight of some sort.

Yesterday I attended the Detecting Shropshire dig as a guest. It was held at a site in north Shropshire and we all met at a pre-arranged spot before driving in convoy to the day’s farm.

The weather was shockingly windy; as we drove up the farm track past a dead tree, a large branch was torn off and landed only a few feet from the passing cars. Once we were parked up and out of the shelter of the farmyard it was obvious a gale was whipping across the fields. In fact it was so strong that when I put the Deus down to dig a hole the wind started to blow the detector away, bowling it along the ground. (Yes, folks, that’s how light the Deus is – it blows away in a gale.) The fields were also covered with rotted manure, which meant that you had to pick carefully which areas to detect and dig and which to avoid.

By around noon people were gathering again in the farmyard, not only for lunch but to get out of the wind for a while. A handful of people left at this point, though who knows whether they would have done so if the weather had been better. Having scoffed lunch and downed a couple of cups of coffee I tried to persuade myself that I was ready to tackle the gale again. And failed. Coward that I am, I decided to call it a day too.

This was, despite everything, the best day’s digging I’ve had in ages. I found nothing spectacular but I’m still learning how the Deus works and I came away with a handful of small finds, including my first thimble, though others did very well and found more than I did, both in terms of quantity and interest.